1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of woodburning furnaces for heating buildings and the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to combination fireplace/furnaces in which wood may be burned to provide a heating system for a building and in which the fire burning within the furnace may be viewed as in a fireplace.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has, of course, been long known to heat buildings such as houses and the like with the heat produced by burning wood. The earliest of such heating systems typically utilized a fireplace which simply radiated the heat outwardly from the fire produced by the burning wood. The deficiencies of such heating systems are also well known. While a fire burning within a fireplace may be aesthetically pleasing, much of the heat produced by a fireplace is wasted through the flue or chimmney. Heating systems utilizing a fireplace have also encountered difficulties in evenly distributing the heat produced by the fire within the fireplace throughout the room or building which is to be heated. The area nearest the fireplace receives the greatest, perhaps excessive, heat while areas located farther from the fireplace receive less, perhaps insufficient, heat.
Other, more modern, methods of heating a building and the like have been developed which do not contain the deficiencies found in heating systems utilizing fireplaces. One of such more modern heating systems, generally referred to as the forced air system, utilizes the circulation of air heated within a furnace. Forced air heating systems have been developed which utilize oil, gas, or other petroleum fuels as an energy source to heat the air to be circulated. Forced air systems have been developed which utilize wood alone as a fuel and others have been developed which utilize a combination of wood and oil as fuels. Depending upon their sophistication, such systems may or may not be thermostatically controlled.
Forced air systems generally utilize the heat produced by the burning of the fuel (such as wood, oil or a combination of the two) to heat air which is passed through a heat exchanger located within the furnace. The air which is thus heated is circulated to the areas which are to be heated. The advantages to such systems, of course, are that the heated air may be more evenly distributed, resulting in a more even distribution of heat from the system, and the use of automatic, thermostatic controls permits regulation of the heat produced by the burning of the fuel, thus controlling the amount of heat which will be distributed by the air circulation.
While the more modern forced air systems have solved many of the heating problems associated with the use of heating systems utilizing fireplaces, the forced air systems lack much of the visual and aesthetic appeal of fireplaces. The furnaces of the forced air systems typically do not permit viewing of the fire produced by the burning of the fuel within the furnace.
The present invention solves problems associated with these prior art systems. The present invention exhibits the advantages of both the fireplace heating systems and the forced air heating systems without sacrificing the advantages of the other.